Permission to Feel: Normalizing the Return-to-Work Struggle #StopTheStigmaEM
Returning to work after a period of leave, whether for medical reasons, new parenthood, or professional development, can stir complex emotions such as fear, unease, guilt, and even doubt about one's career path. These reactions are especially common among junior faculty and physicians within the first five years of practice, where high demands and limited decompression time can amplify stress.
This session, co-sponsored by the Academy for Women in Academic Emergency Medicine (AWAEM), will explore the emotional realities of re-entering an academic environment that prizes excellence and productivity, normalize these experiences, and address the underlying sense of tension and disheartenment that can emerge. Featuring a candid conversation among leaders and learners in academic emergency medicine, the discussion will highlight practical strategies and guided reflection to help participants identify personal goals for reintegration, understand their own and colleagues' perspectives, clearly communicate their needs, choose effective avenues for support, and assess their progress toward feeling settled again. Attendees will leave with concrete, compassionate tools to navigate the transition and contribute to dismantling the stigma surrounding vulnerability in medicine.
By the end of this webinar, engaged participants will be able to:
- Recognize and validate their own and others' emotions related to returning to work after a period of leave.
- Apply strategies to set and communicate healthy boundaries during reintegration into the workplace.
- Compile and evaluate a list of reintegration strategies shared by peers and colleagues that can support well-being and reduce stigma.
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Al'ai Alvarez, MD
Stanford Emergency Medicine
Al'ai Alvarez, MD (@alvarezzzy) is a national leader and educator on wellness, diversity, equity, and Inclusion. He is a clinical associate professor of Emergency Medicine (EM) and Well-Being Director at Stanford Emergency Medicine. He co-leads the Human Potential Team and serves as the Stanford EM Physician Wellness Fellowship Director. He is the Chair of the Stanford WellMD's Physician Wellness Forum and Director of the Physician Resource Network (PRN) Support Program. His work focuses on humanizing physician roles as individuals and teams by harnessing the individual human potential in the context of high-performance teams. This includes optimizing the interconnectedness between Process Improvement (Quality and Clinical Operations), Recruitment (Diversity and Representation), and Well-being (Inclusion and Belonging). He is one of the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.
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Mia L. Karamatsu, MD
Director, Well-Being Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Stanford University
Mia Karamatsu, MD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She serves as the Director of Well-Being for the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Stanford.
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Abigail Polzin, MD
Program Director, Emergency Medicine Residency
University of South Dakota, Sanford Health
Abigail Polzin, MD, is the emergency medicine residency program director at the University of South Dakota and at Sanford Health. She has a special interest in trauma care and pediatrics. -
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Victoria L. Zhou, MD
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
University of Vermont
Victoria Zhou, MD is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Vermont. She currently serves as Associate Residency Program Director for the University of Vermont Emergency Medicine Residency.